Re: Bueligens P-38 kills, disputed
Hallo Ruy and colleagues,
Re. gaps in US records for the period.
Yes, there are huge gaps in USAAF records for the Tunisian campaign, especially the early months. Anyone looking for pilot rosters and lists of aircraft serial numbers I wish them luck ! The 82nd FG is of huge interest to me. Some years ago I began to attempt to reconnstruct a pilot roster for this unit covering December 1942. Lack of detailed and authoritative historical documents caused this endeavour to stall after some time. It is my hope that there are yet undiscovered treasures in the NARA, but accessing them for me from Ireland is presently impossible. There is no online catalogue. One wonders if they (NARA) know themselves what they have. I would welcome further comment on this topic now that Ruy has raised it. Perhaps we can all learn a little more.
Re. P-38 losses on 8th January 1943.
As well as the P-38 losses for the 14th FG of 3 destroyed and 2 damaged the 82nd FG this day apparently lost 4 Lightnings and 2 pilots. No less than 6 separate missions were flown by the 95th and 97th FS, 3 each. This was an unusually high figure at that point in the campaign for this inexperienced group. The 96th FS was non-operational that day. All 6 were bomber escort missions. It appears the following losses occurred;
97th FS mission to Graiba, one P-38 and pilot MIA.
97th FS mission to Kairouan, one P-38 and pilot MIA.
95th FS mission to Kalaa Srira (sic), one P-38 lost. (According to data supplied by William J. Schildt this mission was airborne 1430 - 1715 hours, escorting B-25s)
97th FS mission to Kairouan, one P-38 lost.
One of the pilots lost was LtCol. Roy M. Loe, the deputy Group Commander. The other I have not been able to identify yet, if indeed a second pilot was lost. 2/Lt. Pincus P. Taback of the 97th FS had his P-38 badly damaged by a Bf 109 (according to Taback) and when he crash-landed at his airfield it was destroyed in the fire that followed.
No times are given and it is not stated if all these losses were due to enemy action. The above details are extracted from a type of statistical report for the 82nd FG titled 'REPORT OF OPERATIONS performed prior to 1 July 1943', only part of which I received from the NARA via a private researcher.
I know the above is at varience with ADORIMINI by Steve Blake and John Stanaway but I believe it to be accurate. By the way no missions were flown by the 82nd FG on 9 January 1943. I have been co-operating with Steve Blake for many years now and have supplied him with copies of anything quoted above.
And don't forget the 3rd Photo Group. I know almost nothing about their operations in North Africa. However the US Army Air Forces website on their MACR database records an F-4 (41-2134) lost on 8 January 1943, MACR 14573. Obviously an MACR compiled well after the actual loss. Next go to the ABMC website and in the unit listing for the 5th Photo Squadron of this Group one finds a Major Robert M. Ritchie lost on 8 January 1944. This apparent error is probably due to the frequent practice of the American authorities in assigning a date of death to an MIA one year afterwards.
So potentially there are 5 more P-38 losses on this date. Some were certainly caused by enemy aircraft but impossible to go further without more information, especially times.
Hope the foregoing is of interest. I look forward to others hopefully expanding on the above, but I will be away for the next few days.
Regards,
Martin Gleeson.
|